


Trail Signs

by CuriousThimble



Series: Prompts and Drabbles [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Grief/Mourning, Parent Death, Post-Dragon Age II Quest - All That Remains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:55:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24443920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuriousThimble/pseuds/CuriousThimble
Summary: After Leandra's death, Hawke drops by The Hanged Man to see Varric.
Series: Prompts and Drabbles [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1637275
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	Trail Signs

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prompt from Cornfedcryptic on Tumblr!

"What are you doing?"

Varric glanced up as Hawke came into his room. "Setting up my chessboard," he explains, "Fenris is coming over for a game soon."

"Fenris plays chess?"

"Sure. He says it's one of the few things Danarius was interested in him learning and being good at."

Hawke pulled herself on top of the table, watching closely. "My father used to play," she says, picking up a pawn and turning it over in her hands. "I think he only taught Carver so they'd have something to do together."

"Father-son bonding, eh?" Varric chuckles. "I suppose Junior could do worse. How's he doing in Amaranthine?"

"Fine, I guess," she sighs, returning the pawn. "He won't write to me, Gamlen sometimes sends news when he’s sober enough to remember."

"You haven't been out much," Varric says, tactfully changing the subject. She looks...awful, really. Hawke's always struck him as sort of pretty for a human, but now she's sickly pale and has dark smudges under her eyes. _She looks hollow,_ he thinks, making a mental note to make sure Bodhan knows if she’s eating well. "Blondie finally get you out of the house?"

She shakes her head. "He's away with Bela and Merrill, they're _sailing_ ," she says vaguely, using the code word for smuggling mages out of the city. "Won't be back for a few days. But I can’t stay home," she adds. “The quiet is too...I don’t know. Loud.”

"You know, Waffles, when I lost my mother...it was bad," he tells her, not looking at her- he was certain that if he did, they'd both fall apart. Leandra's funeral had been hard enough for them both, he didn't want to start sniffling and weeping again. "I just...I understand."

"I know."

The words are small enough to float into the corners of the room, hanging there like old cobwebs. Varric's heart aches, feeling the loss of his own mother as a fresh wound. He'd at least had time to sit by her side and read to her, saying goodbye in the only way he knew how. "It's never easy, Hawke," he says gruffly, patting her knee and looking up at her. "But you'll get through it."

Hawke laughs, bitter and guttural. "Can you teach me how to do it?" she asks coldly. "How to get through this with two siblings gone, another that hates me, and an uncle who can't even look at me because _I_ couldn't protect the last person I had left? How do I _get through it_?"

"I wish I could," is all he says. “Whoever finds the way first should leave trail signs.”


End file.
